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Izumi Curtis
Izumi Curtis was a supporting character in the anime/manga franchise Fullmetal Alchemist. She is a master alchemist and a skilled martial artist who lives the life of a normal housewife, running a butcher shop in the town of Dublith with her husband Sig. She also played a pivotal role in Edward and Alphonse Elric's development, taking them on as students after the loss of their mother. Japanese Voice: Shoko Tsuda English Voice: Christine Auten While Izumi Curtis appears in both the 2003 series and the 2009 Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood series, she only dies in the 2003 series, so information about her Brotherhood incarnation has not been included. History In her youth, Izumi had trained under the tutelage of the master alchemist Dante. Their distinctive views of alchemy and life lead them into an estranged relationship, with Izumi leaving her old teacher behind as soon as she could. In the years since leaving Dante, Izumi met and married Sig and the two of them attempted to have a child. Much to their dismay, Izumi's baby was still-born. Driven by the pain of her loss, Izumi attempted the taboo art of human transmutation to bring her child back to life. Izumi paid a heavy price for this attempt, losing several of her internal organs, and the transmutation did not have the desired result. What Izumi had brought back was not human but a grotesque homunculus. Seeing that what came back was not human, Izumi gave the creature to the Gate only to greatly regret it after hearing its cries and as she tried to reach him, the Gate closed its doors. Because of this, Izumi would constantly be haunted by regret for years to come, and because the transmutation had cost her several organs, her life expectancy had been greatly diminished. Izumi would receive surgery to rearrange her remaining organs and stay functional, but from then on she was living on borrowed time. Periodically, in times of emotional or physical stress, she would cough up blood. Some time after her failed transmutation, Izumi was passing through the rural town of Resembool when a heavy storm threatened to cause a flood. Using her alchemy, she managed to create an effective flood barrier to stop the river from overflowing. The young Elric brothers witnessed this act and approached Izumi, asking her to take them on as her apprentices. Izumi initially refused, but after being informed that they had lost their mother, she caved in and decided to offer the boys a trial period. With the boys in tow, Izumi and Sig returned to Dublith and made arrangements for their test. She took the Elric brothers to Yock Island, gave them a large knife and informed them that they were to survive on the island alone for one month without the use of alchemy, all the while trying to decipher the meaning to her creed "All is One, One is All". Secretly leaving Sig's assistant, Mason, on the island to both watch over the boys' safety and make sure they honed their physical combat skills, Izumi departed for Dublith without them. When she returned in a month, Izumi was pleasantly surprised to find the boys not only in great shape, but having properly understood her alchemical creed. Fulfilling her promise, Izumi accepted them into her tutelage, instructing them in both alchemy and martial arts for six months before deeming them knowledgeable enough to return home and continue practicing on their own. Izumi would not see the Elric brothers again for several years and meets them again by chance while they and Winry Rockbell are visiting Rush Valley. When they meet again, Izumi is outraged to learn that Edward has become a State Alchemist and furiously reprimands him. She takes the brothers and Winry back to Dublith with her, and during the time they spend under her roof, Ed and Al confess that they had attempted human transmutation. Izumi then beats Ed and Al to the ground as punishment for abusing her teachings, but immediately afterwards she lovingly embraces them. Izumi then leaves Ed and Al on Yock Island where she had previously left them in order for them to re-learn the lessons they had forgotten. After a few days, she returns for them and discovers that there is another person on the island with them: a young boy with long hair and an arm and leg that do not appear to belong to him. When Ed and Al approach him, the boy reacts and performs an alchemic transmutation without a circle, something that only alchemists who have survived a human transmutation attempt have been known to do. Izumi decided to bring the boy home with her until they could figure out what to do with him. However, seeing what the boy had done and noticing the mismatched arm and leg he possessed, Ed realised that the boy was most likely a homunculus and that he had somehow taken Ed's arms and legs, hence why he was capable of using alchemy without a circle. Not long after this revelation, the boy becomes a target of the military, the homunculi, and a group of chimera led by the rogue homunculus Greed. The young homunculus is abducted by Envy and fed Red Stones, thus he becomes the group's newest member: Wrath. Izumi later explains to Edward and Alphonse how the alchemic principle of Equivalent Exchange works and how she had seen the Gate, explaining how she had also attempted human transmutation which resulted in Wrath's creation. She then sends the boys out to meet with her old mentor Dante, believing that she may hold some of the answers the boys seek. While the boys are visiting Dante's mansion, they are attacked by Greed's band of chimera and Al is kidnapped. Izumi joins Ed in trying to rescue him, even fighting against Greed herself, though she suffers severe injuries as she attempts to break through Greed's indestructible armour skin. As the military raid the Devil's Nest via the sewers, Izumi and the Elrics are able to escape in the confusion. After Al has been rescued and Ed kills Greed, Izumi and the Elrics part ways as the brothers head east to Ishval. They would meet again towards the end of the series after Al is abducted by the homunculi after the incident in Reole turns him into a living Philosopher's Stone. While in hiding from the State Military, Izumi stays at Dante's house after she was apparently murdered by Greed to investigate the mysteries behind her former teacher because of Izumi's questioning that she may have been hiding something which is why she had secluded herself to living away from civilization. Izumi uncovers a mysterious letter addressed to Ed's father Hohenheim that is dated back 400 years ago and showed Ed after he arrived and mentioned that the word Hohenheim was the only taboo word during her training. This information would help Ed discover Dante's true identity. Izumi later came to Ed's aid after the Homunculi kidnapped Al, and helped him raid Central Command in order to find Pride. Eventually when Colonel Frank Archer, the man who Izumi briefly met at the military headquarters in South City with half his body outfitted with automail, shows up to stop them, Izumi volunteers to remain behind to fight him. However, due to a combination of the firepower from Archer's automail and her failing health, Izumi is outmatched. After rejecting Archer's offer to become one of his subordinates, Izumi is nearly killed, until 2nd Lt. Maria Ross and Sergeant Denny Brosh arrive with military backup in order to assist Izumi. In the series epilogue, Izumi agrees to train Alphonse (who had been reverted back to his ten-year old human body) in alchemy again so he can one day reunite with Ed. Death In Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa, it is revealed that Izumi has finally succumbed to her illness. During the two-year gap between the film and the end of the series, her condition deteriorated to the point where she couldn't move. Knowing her time was almost up, she had sent Alphonse away so that he would not have to witness her death. Category:TV Characters Category:Movie Deaths Category:Animated Characters Category:Anime Deaths Category:Off-screen Deaths Category:Supporting Characters Category:Humans Category:Heroes Category:Fullmetal Alchemist Category:Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) Category:Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa Category:Slow Deaths Category:Painful Deaths Category:Death by Sickness Category:Tragic Deaths